Direct to Home (DTH) subscription base in India is 6.2 crores, Tata Sky share currently stands at 1.4 crore subscribers. With the ever maturing urban markets, Tata Sky has been looking to target rural India – a market where a large chunk of TV viewers still depend on analogue services.

However, the biggest market barrier has been the same urban offerings in rural areas even though both are two different markets. “Every time we went into the interiors of the country, our customers would ask why they should pay for the whole month when there’s no electricity for half the time,” said Harit Nagpal, MD and CEO of Tata Sky.

With this understanding that smaller towns and villages demand for smaller consumption size much like smaller recharge packages and to provide competition to other providers, Tata Sky introduced Daily Recharge – a sachet size recharge voucher offering a minimum of Rs 8 recharge coupon that will allow a user to access the DTH service for a day. These cards will be available even at general stores and small kiosks across the country.

The product that is putting the consumer at the center to make his decision for his entertainment needs, required a path breaking campaign that looked beyond creating just one or two TVC’s. The challenge here for the brand was to amplify the everyday usage of the brand and thus, the benefits associated with it.

Daily Dillagi – storytelling via daily episodes

Tata Sky in association with Ogilvy & Mather came up with a campaign idea that would not be based on one or two TVC’ but a young love story that would unfold every day, promoting everyday usage in an interesting manner. With the brand promise of “Daily milenge toh pyaar to hoga hi” (Daily meeting will lead to love) the agency created 13 commercials of 35 seconds each that narrate a love story set in a town close to Srinagar.

Launched a fortnight before the ongoing IPL 8, the story is about how Mannu starts getting attracted to Neelu who visits his store daily for buying the everyday Tata Sky recharge and finally is in love with her. The below video uploaded on YouTube with 216K views is the first episode where Mannu meets Neelu for the first time and falls for her.

The episodes released everyday during the ongoing IPL matches, apart from exploring the teenage romance, also state the benefits of buying the daily recharge vouchers. For instance the below video talks about the flexibility of daily recharge that saves money from the electricity cuts and at times when you don’t want TV to be watched.

#DailyDillagi on social media

In addition to uploading all the episodes on YouTube, the brand is also building conversations on social media around the forthcoming episodes. For example Mannu is finally going on a date with Neelu and he is all confused about what he should he wear for the date. He is asking his fans on social media to help him out.

https://youtu.be/yrjjPGcDtVg

The fresh Facebook and Twitter page of Daily Dillagi has also pushed some creative visuals to connect with fans around #ThingsPeopleInLoveDo, #SaidAllDadsEver, among others.

In fact both Neelu and Mannu have also created their Facebook personal profiles to give the campaign a personal touch. Even though it is understood that they are managed by the brand or agency, small efforts like this do their best to make it every teenager’s love story.

Disruptive storytelling via TV and social media

These days every forward thinking brand is investing money and effort in telling a good story (Read also: Why Storytelling Is The Future Of Digital Marketing). However most fail to tie the knot between TV and social media, Tata Sky does a commendable job.

Ditching the traditional way of tying a single story with a product, Tata Sky not only went ahead with a series of episodes to tell a story but also used social media innovatively. In addition to the regular episodes and videos of contests, the brand uploaded smaller videos showcasing reactions from different characters affected by the love story. The below video shows Neelu’s dad talking about her sudden changed behavior.

https://youtu.be/ci6DCcdK3Ms

The brand needed to reach out and communicate to a set of audience that are spread across various geographies of the country. The first phase of above-the-line, or mass media, campaign will cost about Rs 40 crore, the second phase will focus on small towns and villages. While competitors might look it as a gimmick campaign but for now it is a bold move by Tata Sky to promote a product via story telling on TV and then further tying it with digital. In doing so Tata Sky has reached its IPL watching TV audience and by building conversations on social media it has also gained eyeballs from netizens.

However, beyond product awareness, the future would tell whether the innovative campaign was successful in spiking up Tata Sky’s subscriber base in rural areas with this latest daily recharge voucher.